Forced, confusing and superficial: Flip Side 8 is a step backward for Ly Hai

Ly Hai and the crew put a lot of effort into Lat mat 8: Vong tay nang but the film deserves a better script - Photo: Producer

After the 482 billion VND "box office blockbuster" Flip Side 7: One Wish, Director and screenwriter Ly Hai continues to choose the family theme for Lat mat 8: Vong tay nang.

If in Flip Side 7 gather a big family of 5 small families then Flip Side 8 same: the extended family here is the young friends who founded the band The Light and their five own families, along with two other orphaned friends.

Bigger, more numerous, but...

The family chosen as the center, taking up the most time, is Mr. Phuoc's family (Long Dep Trai) - Mrs. Hien (Meritorious Artist Tuyet Thu) with son Tam (Doan The Vinh), daughter Phuc (Hong Thu) and grandmother (Meritorious Artist Kim Phuong).

But other families also take up a lot of time in the film, describing their living conditions and individual problems.

Trailer for the movie Flip Side 8: Sunny Bracelet

And the highlight of the film is that the group of friends The Light seems really close-knit, especially among the poor children, although the performance is not too subtle or unique. Most of them are teenagers from poor families or orphans, except for the beautiful girl My (played by Bao Ngoc) who is from a rich family.

This is a common strength in movies. Flip side belong to Ly Hai. He has the talent to make the characters in the movie and the actors in real life look connected and have "chemistry" with each other.

Almost any part of Flip side also have a group of close friends who divide time equally, the "spotlight" is not too focused on anyone.

Since part 7, Flip side aiming for a large, impressive crowd, gathering dozens of actors. It is not difficult to understand that this style of filmmaking comes from a director who is passionate about big scenes. Almost all of Ly Hai's films have big scenes with 1,000 people, or even more.

Regarding the setting, he always chooses at least one very large place, like the vast sand dunes in the full sunlight of Binh Thuan in Flip Side 8 very beautiful on film

"Flip Side 8: Vong Tay Nang" invested a lot in production but struggled to tell a story convincing enough for the audience - Photo: Producer

But when things are scaled up, pushed to a huge, powerful level, then Flip Side 8 again and Flip Side series In general, the lack of attention to small details is increasingly evident.

Throughout the entire duration of the film, the narrator voice of Phuc - the main character's younger sister - annoys the audience more than clarifying the content or bringing the necessary emotions. Because what Phuc tells and comments on is not difficult to feel, it can be completely grasped through the dialogues, expressions and acting of the other characters.

Not only Phuc's narration is redundant, many other lines in the film are also redundant. The characters seem to narrate and describe on behalf of other characters and the film's story instead of actually conversing.

For example, when Tam was very remorseful, the audience should have felt Tam's pain, but Phuc still had to "comment" immediately: "I still owe you an apology."

The inherent weakness of Vietnamese films is that they go against the principle of "Show, don't tell", always explaining every thought and feeling, filling every blank space in the audience's mind to the point that they don't need to feel anything themselves.

However, since Ly Hai is a filmmaker with 10 years of experience, the audience has the right to demand more than such a simple storytelling style.

Mr. Phuoc's house is arranged in a normal style, although poor, it is generous - Photo: DPCC

Disappointment Flip Side 8

Many elements of Flip Side 8 It feels forced and incomplete. The two biggest forced points are the character's psychological plot that changes like a pinwheel and the series of plot twists at the end of the film, including an ending that forces the audience to ask: Why? Is it necessary?

Mr. Phuoc (Long Dep Trai) is the character with the most carefully constructed psychological line in the film. He also has a turning point in his perspective on raising children and dealing with his children's dreams, corresponding to the film's title "Lat mat". But this change happened so easily that the audience could hardly believe it because before that, Mr. Phuoc was very harsh and stubborn with his old views.

The detail that Mrs. Hien was discovered to be illiterate but before that, more than ten years ago, she had lived a normal, peaceful life with her husband and children without any problems is quite unreasonable.

The last 30 minutes of Lat mat 8 left the audience asking too many questions "Why?" - Photo: Producer

But the climax of the awkwardness and confusion is the series of events in the last 30 minutes of the film. The character participates in an important event in his life but is not well prepared, lacks a backup plan, does not think of a way to handle it in time, but leaves it to the last minute to do it even though it is not difficult.

In the urgent situation, the character still stands there fixing the car, smiling calmly without looking for help. Then suddenly the script depicts an unimaginably unfavorable weather condition, almost like a natural disaster. All of this combined makes the last 30 minutes of the film spread out and emotionally draining, like a giant grain of sand.

Message for Ly Hai

Once again, because Ly Hai is a filmmaker 10 years of experience and has also made better movies, the audience has the right to hope in him.

I have prepared Flip Side 8 two months earlier than the parts Flip side other.

All the young main actors had to practice singing and dancing, and he personally ran back and forth to check the set in Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan, giving the actors lines and acting, much harder than every year.

That shows that he is still very passionate about the strongest cinema brand in Vietnam that he built with his own hands.

Therefore, he should not follow the path of many Vietnamese movies in recent years.

That is: the production quality is very invested, even too sophisticated, but the script and psychology are too superficial.

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/khien-cuong-kho-hieu-va-hoi-hot-lat-mat-8-la-buoc-lui-cua-ly-hai-3355950.html